SANTA FE, N.M. — New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez is drawing criticism over her veto of legislation that would have required the state to expedite the occupational and professional licenses of domestic partners of gay military service members.

The Republican governor signed into law a nearly identical measure but it applies only to spouses of military members — not domestic partners in a same-sex relationship.

Susana Martinez

The legislature sent Martinez two versions of the same bill, HB180 and SB258, making it easier for the state to help our active duty and retired service members and their spouses obtain professional services, according to Patrick Davis, Executive Director of Progress Now New Mexico, the state’s largest LGBT advocacy organization.

“The only difference? The Senate version contained an amendment, offered by Sen. Jacob Candelaria (the state’s only openly gay member), to be sure domestic partners of gay service members would be covered too,” said Davis, in a statement.

I am a licensed physician in Alaska and practiced in Juneau since 1993. Discrimination has been reported to me in clinical exam rooms numerous times by gay and lesbian individuals.

For example, a teen girl was humiliated and thrown out of a local Juneau restaurant because she kissed her girlfriend inside the restaurant. She and her girlfriend were told to never return to the restaurant again. With her parents blessings the girl ultimately moved away from Juneau after she reached 18 partly because Alaska was an unfriendly and unsupportive place for her.

It is a well known fact that we are losing LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) youth to suicide and homelessness in large proportion compared to non-LGBT youth. Here in Alaska we have one of the highest suicide rates in the country and it is stripping our villages.

More than once I have been at patients’ bedsides here in Juneau waking from a drug overdose attempt and been told by the young person, that they tried to kill them self because they thought they were gay.

Alaska is not a safe place to be gay. Discrimination is unacceptable at any age.

The American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Psychiatry, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Alaska Academy of Family Physicians all support legislation to end discrimination against LGBT persons, thereby promoting a healthier society.

Representatives Beth Kerttula, Josephson, Gruenberg, and Kreiss-Tomkins introduced HB 139 to add LGBT people to our Alaskan anti-discrimination clause so that LGBT individuals have the same protections other Alaskans enjoy. PLEASE encourage our legislators in the House and Senate from all over Alaska to do the right thing and pass HB139 without reservation. Doctor’s Orders!

Following the United Nations’ historic resolution endorsing LGBT human rights in 2011, President Obama issued a mandate to all agencies involved with foreign aid and development to “enhance their ongoing efforts with governments, citizens, civil society, and the private sector in order to build respect for the human rights of LGBT persons.”

Today in Washington D.C., the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) announced their response to Obama’s mandate: The LGBT Global Development Partnership. The partnership with the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, the Gay & Lesbian Victory Institute (GLVI), the Williams Institute, and Olivia Companies will further LGBT equality in developing and emerging countries.

LGBT rights at the UN

The United Nations reports that there are 76 countries worldwide where homosexuality is illegal. 54 of the countries where it is ‘illegal to be gay’ can be blamed on leftover British colonial penal codes. Some of these countries, like Uganda and Nigeria where homosexuality is already illegal, have legislative measures underway, or already passed, to further penalize the gay community. 7 of the countries currently impose the death penalty, with Uganda’s Kill-the-Gays-Bill posed to make that country the 8th.

The Partnership will work with on-the-ground LGBT and human rights defenders in these countries to meet its goals of furthering LGBT equality worldwide.

I was really hoping we’d heard the last of the Republicans and their fake Benghazi outrage once the last presidential election was over, only to watch in horror as they continued with the madness for months on end. On this Sunday’s Meet the Press, Sen. Lindsey Graham just confirmed what most of us assumed already when they kept up with the attacks even after the election, and that is it’s never going to end as long as Hillary Clinton is considered a presidential contender. Oh joy.

GREGORY: We’re going to talk after this break about presidential politics, waiting for Hillary Clinton. If she’s the nominee can Republicans beat her?

GRAHAM: I think after eight years of Barack Obama if things don’t change, the next Democrat running for president will be in trouble. She will be a formidable candidate. I think her time as Secretary of State is mixed. Benghazi is yet to be told completely. But anybody that underestimates her on the Republican said would do so at their peril. But yes, she can be beatan. Anybody can be beaten in this country.

Nobody likes the chained CPI. And yet, the Very Serious People are still Very Serious about it:

On the news that President Obama’s budget indeed contains a highly unpopular proposal for Social Security cuts known as “chained CPI,” a new poll by the American Association of Retired Persons shows us exactly how unpopular it is.

The AARP reveals that 70 percent of voters age 50-plus oppose the use of the chained CPI to cut benefits, and two-thirds of them – including 60 percent of Republicans — say they would be “considerably less likely” to support a congressional candidate if he or she backed a new way of calculating consumer prices. And 84 percent of voters over 50 say Social Security has no place in budget-deficit discussions, since it is self-financed.

On every single question, Republicans lag only a point or two behind Democrats in their opposition to Social Security cuts.

Michael Lind explains why it’s such a bad deal on policy terms here. I’ve written about it many times, including here. The AARP opposes it on policy terms. Now its new survey shows how risky it is politically.

“The chained CPI reduction snowballs over time and would increase taxes for most taxpayers — at the same time that it cuts benefits for children, veterans, widows, retirees, and people with disabilities,” said AARP executive vice president Nancy LeaMond in a statement. “As this survey shows, older Americans oppose the chained CPI and they’ve historically made their opinions known to their elected officials.”

Just remember, a lot of the people who will make angry statements over the next few weeks are the same people who insisted they wouldn’t support the affordable care act without a public option. So time will tell who’s full of shit.

Montana state Rep. Amanda Curtis (D-Butte) slammed her Republican colleagues on Monday for supporting a state law that makes homosexuality a felony.

A bill to repeal the obsolete law was passed by the state’s House Judiciary Committee, but 38 Republicans voted against it. Curtis noted that during debate over the bill, state Rep. Krayton Kerns (R-Laurel) implied that LGBT individuals lacked a “moral character.”

“It was so hard to sit through that and not walk across the floor and punch him,” she said in video uploaded to YouTube. “That’s so offensive. Talk about starting a fight. I’ve had so many people asking me how I sit through this testimony without just standing up and screaming — and it was really, really hard today.”

herapy) who lives in New Jersey or had your therapy sessions take place in this state?

Are you a New Jersey medical or mental health professional who has witnessed the damage caused by so-called “ex-gay” programs?

If so, please contact Truth Wins Out ASAP.

We’d love to hear from you so we can stop these quacks and charlatans from harming more LGBT youth. Let’s put an end to this sadistic form of consumer fraud once and for all.

If you are a writer on the blogsphere, or simply use Facebook, Twitter, or other social media, please help us spread the word – we are depending on you. We all have a responsibility to protect our youth from predators disguised as “ex-gay” doctors.

(CNSNews.com) – President Barack Obama designated April 9 as National Equal Pay Day, even though 70 percent of White House staffers in the top-salary bracket were men, and male White House staffers earn on average 13 percent more than female staffers.

“To grow our middle class and spur progress in the years ahead, we need to address longstanding inequity that keeps women from earning a living equal to their efforts,” Obama said in the proclamation released Monday evening. “That is why I have made pay equity a top priority — from signing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act days after I took office to cracking down on equal pay law violations wherever they occur. And to back our belief in equality with the weight of law, I continue to call on the Congress to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act.”

CNSNews.com reported on March 15 that 70 percent of White House staffers earning the maximum salary of $172,200 last year were men and 30 percent were women, according to the White House numbers posted on staff compensation. Further, men on the White House staff are paid $86,260.89 on average. Women on the White House staff are paid an average of $76,162.65. So men on the White House staff are paid about 13.26 percent more than women. Put another way, women earn 88.29 percent of what men earn.